St. Cloud Students Gearing Up To Solve Problems Stumping Local Manufacturer

(KNSI) – Over 40 St. Cloud State University students will spend all weekend trying to solve real-world problems faced by an area manufacturer.

Computer Science and Information Technology Department Chair Mark Petzold goes through the types of issues companies bring to Huskies Invent. “With Cold Spring recently, they were getting into the granite paver market, and that’s kind of a weird market because it’s dominated by China. When you do pavers, you got to put eighth-inch spacers on the outside. Our team came up with a great way of automating that.”

Petzold says before that change was implemented, it required manual labor which priced out American manufacturers. Several area companies have been involved with the event, including DeZURIK and Park Industries. Petzold says all have been happy with the results, even those who may have come into it skeptical.

Petzold notes that other lessons are learned, too. “The big thing for the students is sometimes that’s the first time working on a team that they don’t necessarily pick. That’s how the work environment is. You don’t get to pick your workmates sometimes. They have to learn how to get along and work with people that aren’t necessarily their best friends.”

Improving presentation skills is also a strong focus of the competition. The students will get to tackle their choice of five different issues being faced by this year’s sponsor, Thermo-Tech Windows.

Participants are working towards degrees in computer science, various engineering disciplines, business, and hard sciences like biology. Petzold says it is a great resumé builder. Several students in past competitions have gotten hired for internships and full-time jobs due to the contacts they’ve made at Huskies Invent.

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